


treat me kindly

by Anonymous



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Blowjobs, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Grinding, Hair-pulling, Insecurity, Kissing, M/M, Oral Sex, Praise Kink, Self-Esteem Issues, Somewhat sad, Yunho Figures Some Things Out, somewhat established relationship?, there's not really anything triggering here besides feelings of low self worth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-13 14:37:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20584142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Mingi’s lips taste like salt but his tongue is sweet when it curls around Yunho’s.orIn every photoshoot Mingi looks smaller and smaller. Yunho is scared one day he'll shrink too much and vanish.





	1. Chapter 1

“Yunho-ssi, are there any _hidden sides_ to the members you can tell fans about?” The interviewer needles, leaning forward conspiratorially in his seat. 

Yunho hums and taps the bottom of the mic against the flat of his palm, looking around at his groupmates. Seonghwa is smiling in a way that looks more like he’s baring his teeth at Yunho, so he immediately forsakes any intent to expose their eldest. Jongho and Wooyoung are purposefully avoiding his eyes in a way that they probably think is very natural. After a couple more seconds of deliberation Yunho settles on Mingi.

“Mingi might seem intimidating,” Yunho begins dramatically, “but the truth is...he’s very soft-hearted. He tries to act cool but he’s more the _cute_ type.” Yunho slides an arm over Mingi next to him. Mingi shakes his head in denial, looking affronted for the camera. It’s a bit they do often - Mingi’s dual charms are hardly anything new to the fans, but they’ll still swoon over the sentiment.

The rest of the guys coo and make agreeable noises, and the interviewer _ahh_s in understanding. They move on to the next question, and Yunho looks back at Mingi. Their main rapper is smiling dopily down at his hands, cheekbones dusted pink. 

Yunho’s lips curl into a smile against his will. He looks away when Mingi raises his head, fixing his eyes back to the interviewer.

xxx

Yunho doesn’t think it’s weird to check their fans’ social media. They monitor their fancams on YouTube to improve the quality of their dance, so checking fansign posts on Twitter is just that. Monitoring. Except for manners and personability instead of performance. 

So he’s scrolling Twitter. There’s a lot to wade through. Fancam, fancam, fansite picture, post-it, post-it, ah, a video of Wooyoung and a fan, cute, and then he sees it. 

It’s a picture of a post-it and Yunho would have scrolled past it if it weren’t formatted differently. There’s a short question and several scales drawn out. It asks Mingi to rate himself in different categories. Body, face, voice… Yunho grins a little. Knowing Mingi, he’d probably bluster and rate himself over 100 for all. 

Yunho’s smile falters when he realizes Mingi ranked his visuals a 37/100. He looks again, because that can’t be right, but it’s there, in Mingi’s signature chicken-scratch writing.

He doesn’t feel like ‘monitoring’ SNS anymore so he puts his phone away and turns over fitfully in his bed. He can hear Mingi’s laugh echoing loud from the living room where him and San are playing some game. Yunho narrows his eyes up at the ceiling and concentrates real hard. 

It’s just Mingi’s laugh. It doesn’t sound any different from before Yunho found out Mingi thought so little of his appearance. He can’t _hear_ any insecurity. Maybe he should be able to? Maybe Yunho is just a bad friend. Thinking about it, yeah, Mingi does say some things sometimes. Pouts about no one liking him when he doesn’t get any volunteers to play together or go out and eat. Makes self-deprecating jokes about his eyes and nose or compares himself to Yeosang(which, Yunho doesn’t feel is particularly healthy for _anyone’s_ self-esteem). 

But it’s not like he actually feels bad about himself. Mingi is Mingi. Yunho has known him the longest of anyone in the group, and Mingi is much stronger and more capable than he seems. Yunho has seen him in the studio and in the practice rooms. Someone who dances like that, someone with all the raw creative energy and drive Mingi has when he’s writing - Mingi and insecurity don’t even belong in the same sentence.

When Seonghwa’s hollers about their food arriving, Yunho takes the steps downstairs three at a time. He jostles shoulders with his bandmates vying for the most choice piece of chicken. He tries to detect some wrongness in Mingi - but Mingi doesn’t break into tears at the table, doesn’t shrink back when he’s addressed. Nothing.

Uneasily, Yunho dunks his drumstick in sauce.

xxx

“Name a fact about each member that can be proven true!”

7 pairs of eyes turn to look at Yunho. Yunho rolls his. It’s like a physical lightbulb flashes over each artfully tousled head at the same time.

“Yunho is the tallest!”

This is another bit they do often. Yunho’s height is a bit of a wonder to the fans. Yunho thinks they like to feel small, that his height and stature must make them feel protected near him. It’s cute. Yunho has always been pretty _eh_ about it growing up - it seemed to have more cons than pros. Little kids were always scared of him, which made him sad. And when you were a big guy, less-big guys liked to puff up in front of you. Some weird fight-the-biggest-guy-in-the-prison-yard macho nonsense logic. It’s gotten Yunho into some trouble before. But he’s come to like his height quite a bit more.

It’s not even like he’s _that_ tall, though. Mingi is the same exact height, but Yunho is always called the tallest. 

Later, Yunho’s looking through the first-draft unedited photos they were sent from their recent photoshoot. Yunho snorts at the face Hongjoong was making in the first one. Yunho feels nostalgic about how grown-up Jongho looks in his little button-up. He thinks about how tragic of a condition his own roots are in currently, the bright color eaten away at from his part outwards, and wonders if he should petition his stylist.

Mingi is standing next to him in all of the photos. But he looks about a head shorter. That can’t be right. Mingi is just as tall as he is. Why does he look so small?

Yunho, on a whim, scrolls to the drive folder that contains photos from their shoots over the past several months. It’s out of curiosity. Maybe the angle was just weird in the recent pics.

But he finds that no matter how far back he goes in their photos Mingi is always smaller. No matter how they stand Mingi’s posture is warped. Yunho finds himself wondering why he does that, why he curls in on himself, wonders if he can do it until there’s nothing left.


	2. Chapter 2

“He doesn’t get that I’m not _trying_ to mess it up,” Mingi vents. “I’m doing my best and he’s getting mad at me like I’m just being lazy.” His voice is wrecked from his earlier screaming match with Hongjoong. He’s hoarse and upset and it makes Yunho’s chest feel tight. It feels like the asthma attacks he used to get as a kid but a thousand times worse.

Yunho tries to find words that don’t sound like he’s taking a side. He’s one of the more level-headed members in the dorm, so when tempers flare like this it’s common for him to mediate. Mingi is sensitive, though - he’s easy to offend when he’s hurt like this. But Yunho can’t just thoughtlessly console him. In this mood, Mingi is quick to feel belittled and patronized. And Yunho is too honest, likes him far too much, to be any less than real.

“He knows that,” Yunho says, honestly. “He doesn’t think you’re dancing badly or not trying hard enough. He’s just riding your ass on the small details, right? Because he knows you’ve got the rest down.”

Mingi makes a huffy noise. Yunho can only see the top of his head from where Mingi is lying, legs curled around Yunho’s and arms holding his waist. Yunho can feel dampness in the fabric over his ribcage where Mingi’s face is buried.

Yunho plays with his hair. It’s healthy and soft, and feels pretty in his fingers. 

“Mingi,” he says, after several minutes of silence. Mingi doesn’t respond, and Yunho wonders if he seriously fell asleep. He tugs experimentally on Mingi’s hair.

Mingi raises his head obligingly, but his face is frowning. His cheeks and the tip of his nose are glowing pink. His lips are red and his eyelids are puffy. 

“Come up here,” Yunho mumbles, and Mingi presses closer, lines them up shoulder to shoulder. His thighs straddle Yunho’s hips and his forearms bracket Yunho’s head. 

“Poor thing,” Yunho says. Mingi swallows and Yunho watches his adam’s apple bob in his throat. Yunho’s hand travels, slides up his chest. Over his metronome heart, past his neck. He cups the sweet curve of Mingi’s jaw. He meets Mingi’s wet-glass eyes and kisses him. 

Once their lips meet Mingi presses forward like he’s dying. Mingi’s lips taste like salt but his tongue is sweet when it curls around Yunho’s.

Yunho kisses him until his pulse has gone fluttery and his tears are dry. At some point they both sit up - Yunho has a lap full of Mingi and an arm braced behind him. When he pulls away the first time Mingi sounds wounded. Yunho leans close and sucks his bottom lip harshly before separating.

“Hongjoong is stressed and he didn’t mean to sound as harsh as he did.” Yunho reminds. “He’ll feel bad about it by tomorrow, you know. So don’t take it hard.”

Mingi licks his lips and nods, averting his eyes. This is the part where Mingi gets embarrassed. Yunho doesn’t know why it bothers him so much to come to Yunho with his problems. Mingi does the same for Yunho. Coaxes him out of his room and makes him talk even though when Yunho is hurting he’s unresponsive, isolates himself and needs to be pried to open up. It’s not something to be embarrassed about. It’s part of being whatever they are. They help each other.

“Hey.” Yunho wants Mingi to look at him.

“Hey, yourself.” Yunho wants to kiss him again but he doesn’t. 

“I’m serious, man. You’re a great dancer and we all know that. _You’re_ great. So don’t feel bad about needing someone, sometimes, either.” Yunho says, half out of selfish desire to see Mingi grin so brilliantly at the compliment and only half because he knows he needs it. 

“Sorry for being all. Y’know. I shouldn’t have even yelled back at him earlier. Thanks, Yunho. I guess i’ll go talk to him.” Mingi scratches the back of his neck and sighs. He gets up and Yunho watches him go.

When Mingi has his hand on the doorknob Yunho blurts, “We all love you.”

Mingi turns around and offers a wan smile. He closes the door behind him and disappears like smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey im back please leave a comment!!  
short but i'm trying to update every day so   
hope you liked


	3. Chapter 3

They're goofing off in the van, filming for one of their mini-realities when Yunho notices it next. The game is one where they name a category and point to the most fitting member of that category - like, _most likely to be late to practice_.

It’s fun and lighthearted, and Yunho has gotten his fair share of compliments and digs, between being voted Best Personality unanimously and also getting slandered as Heaviest Sleeper. 

“Okay, _Most Handsome_, three, two, one-” All fingers point towards Yeosang on reflex. Yeosang laughs awkwardly and shrugs at the camera like _what can you do?_

“Mingi, aren’t you too shameless?” Seonghwa’s joking voice carries, and 6 heads turn to see what Mingi is up to this time. Mingi, finger still tapping insistently at his own chest in response to the last question, only widens his eyes innocently. 

They all have a good laugh - not a mean laugh, really, just one full of incredulity at Mingi’s boldness. They go a few more questions and then shut the camcorder off. Yunho passes it up towards the staff in the front of the van.

Mingi’s always doing that, puffing himself up in front of the camera. Sometimes it annoys Yunho, when he plays it up too much, boasts too much; it worries him that fans might take issue with it. Idols aren’t supposed to be arrogant. He doesn’t want Mingi getting scolded by management because one day a fan might decide he’s being too full of himself, even in a joking way. But for now, Yunho supposes its fine. The fans think its funny, and so do the members.

The van keeps moving. Yunho tries to plug in some headphones and get shut-eye, but Wooyoung and San are seated behind him and every so often the back of his seat receives a violent _kick_ at intervals too sporadic to be anything other than random. Yunho has half a mind to turn around and see what the hell they’re even _doing_, but he honestly doesn’t have the energy for it. They’ll keep doing whatever it is regardless of Yunho hollering at them, and, well, maybe Yunho doesn’t have the heart to ruin their fun, anyway.

Giving up on his quest for zzz’s, Yunho opens his eyes. Mingi is sitting next to him, hunched over his phone. His forehead is pressed into the seats in front of him. His screen brightness is low.

Yunho leans over a bit, and smirks. He means to make a joke accusing Mingi of watching porn in broad daylight, but the little blue bird at the top of the page kills his intent. Curiosity replaces it. Yunho can’t make out the words but he knows a comment thread when he sees one. He wonders what those little gray default icons are saying. Mingi’s shoulders look so tense.

“Monitoring?” Yunho breathes in Mingi’s ear. He narrowly escapes a painful knock to the nose when Mingi rears up like a spooked horse. 

“I almost died, don’t ever do that again,” Mingi complains, rubbing a hand over his ear vigorously like some trace of Yunho remains there. His other hand dexterously switches his phone off and stashes it away in his jacket pocket, quick like it was never even out in the first place.

Yunho tries to stifle a smile and fails, miserably, cheeks straining with fondness. “I won’t.”

Mingi smacks him lightly on the chest for his lack of remorse.

“What were you reading?” Yunho pesters, sliding an arm around Mingi and tugging him as little bit closer he can get with the seat divider in the way. He sneaks his hand into Mingi’s, intertwining their fingers.

“Oh, you know,” Mingi says vaguely, and suddenly yawns, right after.

“You tired? You can sleep on my shoulder, if you want.” It’s maybe impressive how quickly Yunho’s brain switches gears.

Mingi hums and pretend to ponder. “You’re kind of bony, how comfortable would that be?” He teases.

Yunho is going to make some joke about Mingi _not minding last night_, but he has some class, alright, so he doesn’t. “Alright, sleep in the trunk then,” he quips, turning snippily in his seat. Mingi tugs their conjoined hands back into his lap, and covers them with his other hand, thumb stroking at Yunho’s wrist.

It makes his heart go crazy in his chest, makes him wonder if Mingi can hear the beat it taps out frantically against his ribs. Yunho is staring at Mingi and Mingi is staring at their hands and Yunho thinks he is too cute to live. He opens his mouth to say so when Jongho’s hollering interrupts.

“Did no one in here bring an extra charger? I forgot mine and my phone’s on 6%,” Jongho vocalizes, to absolute cricket silence that said, way better than words, _we all have ours, yeah, but no one is willing to give theirs to you._ It’s a cruel world. Poor Jongho.

Yunho thinks of his own phone which is plugged in at a nice but not perfect 45%. Mingi’s charger is in the socket right next to his, green turtle sticker differentiating his from Yunho’s, which just has the characters of his name scribbled unattractively in sharpie.

Mingi’s phone is still in his pocket, which reminds Yunho, all of a sudden. “Hey, go on Twitter,” Yunho requests.

“What? Why?” There’s a weird little defensive edge to Mingi’s tone, and Yunho blinks, surprised.

“I was just gonna say you should probably post a selca or something. It’s been like 3 weeks since your last one, you lazy bum.” Yunho digs his fingers teasingly into Mingi’s sides, but he just squirms uncomfortably away.

“Oh,” Mingi blows a raspberry with his mouth. “Do you really think I need to?” 

Yunho is a bit thrown off. “Uh, yeah?”

“Shouldn’t Yeosang or San post instead? They’re probably missing them too.”

“They’ve both posted in the past week, you haven’t. If you really don’t want to do it yourself I guess I could post one I have of you…”

Mingi shrieks as quietly as he can get away with in the small, enclosed space, reaching for where Yunho brandishes his own cellphone dangerously. Mingi knows damn well that could mean any unflattering candid or - god forbid - racy photo saved under the “mingi <3” folder in Yunho’s camera roll, and Yunho is just impulsive enough to post something like that, too.

“You’re the worst,” Mingi intones. Yunho grins winningly. “Like, there’s no point, they - they’d like it better if someone else posted anyway.” The last part is said quietly enough that it seems like an afterthought, like something Yunho wasn’t supposed to hear and Mingi wasn’t supposed to say.

He’s not really sure what to make of that. It’s kind of a depressing sentiment, and Mingi can’t actually think that way. Every member has fans. Yunho is so puzzled, so struck by hearing that, he lets the seconds go by processing it. By the time he opens his mouth to say _that’s wrong, the fans would love to see you post just as much,_ too much time has gone by for it to be natural at all, and Mingi is already robotically opening the camera app and taking a half-smiling selca.

Clearing his throat, Yunho leans back in his seat. He doesn’t think Mingi is playing around, when he says stuff like that, per se, but … it doesn’t make any sense for him to say seriously.

But he said it with such conviction.. It’s like some odd balance of self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating behaviours exist at once in Mingi, and Yunho never knows which side he’s going to be shown, or how genuine or joking either is. One moment Mingi is beaming and radiant and proud and the next he loses his fullness, is defensive, is _sad_. How is he even supposed to respond to that? Is he the only one who notices when Mingi does that? 

Yunho studies Mingi out of the corner of his eye. With Yunho’s attention presumedly off of him he’s browsing the same thread as before, and Yunho still can’t make anything out. Mingi is worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. Mingi’s teeth are cute - slightly crooked but charming in a way that only adds to his smile’s heartwarming effect. Super cute.

Yunho wants to ask Mingi if he thinks they're cute, too.

Yunho slips his headphones back in and leans his head back with a _thunk_. When he dreams, he dreams of Mingi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another babie chapter!  
iiiiii hope you like it so far please leave a comment yungi want you to :')

**Author's Note:**

> idk how long this fic will be yet but maybe a few more chapters  
comment below please i hope you liked the fic


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